We still agree with Apple CEO Tim Cook when he said in May 2013, "I think the wrist is interesting."

The $2.5 billion wearable computing market has so far been anchored by smart fitness bracelets and the Kickstarter-funded Pebble smart watch. These two categories are quickly fusing into one larger market: smart wristwear. Smart wristwear will become the wearables category-leader for the ordinary consumer. (See chart, above.)

New mass-market smart watches from companies like Sony, Qualcomm, and Nike are debuting all the time. They may be of uneven quality, but they will get better. Many of them are fitness bands that include watch displays, or timepieces with fitness band-type features like GPS and pedometers. Speculation surrounding an Apple iWatch pegs its release date around mid-2014.